As his government had fallen again, I approached the new governor general, Lord Monck, and obtained a dissolution. Before I could act on it, I was approached by Brown through intermediaries; the Grit leader felt that the crisis gave the parties the opportunity to join together for constitutional reform. Brown had led a parliamentary committee on confederation among the British North American colonies, which had reported back just before the Taché-Macdonald government fell. Brown was more interested in representation by population; my priority was a federation that the other colonies could join. The two compromised and agreed that the new government would support the "federative principle"—a conveniently elastic phrase. The discussions were
